Wow. This entire thing from start to finish is like a textbook example on how NOT to handle PR crises.

Let me get this straight: you're telling us the lesson you've learned is to not respond when emotional? You're posting this as a read-only Google Docs? As a CEO of a major tech publication? Seriously? Wow.

"Finally... Lesson learnt? Don’t respond while emotions are running high"

Wow, after all the drama you still don't get it. Lesson learned should have been: do not copy/paste, especially to such a degree where a majority of your "content" is actually not yours.

A Google doc, very interesting. The use of bit.ly is also interesting--someone may unwittingly click the link and reveal himself through his Google account. Perhaps the intention is to discover who is reading it (for what purpose I can only speculate). It isn't posted on TNW for reasons that are unclear (as others have noted). Perhaps the intention is to crowdsource the editing until the statement eventually converges to what passes for a sincere apology, which could then be posted on TNW. Of course the use of bit.ly and Google Docs could be entirely innocent.

You have got to be joking. A Google doc that can be taken down and that isn't easily indexable to be associated with thenextweb. Why isn't this on TNW?

As for the comment "The debate on paraphrasing, rewriting and quoting we should save for another post" shows a remarkable level of cluelessness. That is the substance of the matter!!!

I can't even say that the title is not an attempt at dissembling. Making the title "Plagiarism?" indicates that you don't believe you plagiarised.

This is the worst non-apology apology I've ever seen.

This should be published on both on your Twitter page and should be a post on The Next Web, not Google Docs.

And you learned the wrong lesson.

Good lessons learned. We've all been there at some point in life (the rash response thing).

TheNextWeb usually has plenty of good, timely posts and it'd be a shame to consider it sullied so I, and hopefully others, hope some good can come out of this drama long term. (I've been in the role of editor and got the blame for sloppy fact-checking by one of my charges; it definitely helped me get my eye back on the ball :-))

"keep your mouth shut until you know all the facts"

I think you learned a hard lesson here, but it's one that many of us had to learn the hard way. It's good to see an apology.

So are you going to fire the offender or what exactly are you doing to prevent this happening again?